Bow Tie

When you see a man wearing a necktie these days, he is probably going to a funeral, a job interview, or his lawyer told him it would be a good idea if he showed up wearing one. The tie may not be dead, but it has a bad cough. In 2007, tie sales in this country totaled $1.5 billion. Last year that figure was down to $850,000. The tie used to be a sign of status, now it's a sign of stiffness. Cool guys don't wear ties. Cool guys wear sports jackets, even suits, without a tie. The open collar look is in, the button-down look has gone the way of the mandatory hat. President Obama bats from both sides of the (fashion)

When you see a man wearing a necktie these days, he is probably going to a funeral, a job interview, or his lawyer told him it would be a good idea if he showed up wearing one. The tie may not be dead, but it has a bad cough. In 2007, tie sales in this country totaled $1.5 billion. Last year that figure was down to $850,000. The tie used to be a sign of status, now it's a sign of stiffness. Cool guys don't wear ties. Cool guys wear sports jackets, even suits, without a tie. The open collar look is in, the button-down look has gone the way of the mandatory hat. President Obama bats from both sides of the (fashion)

It was bow tie pasta, bow tie-shaped cookies and bow tie neckwear all around for the crowd that gathered at the Hartford Club Tuesday because, well, the Greater Hartford Bow Tie Club is made up of a dapper group of men with a sense of style and allegiance to their neckwear. And wear it they did. Following the fashion of Theodore Roosevelt, Malcolm X, John Houseman in "The Paper Chase," Groucho Marx, Pee-wee Herman and George Burns, they showed their stylish stuff in neck wraps of silk, crepe de chine ties and taffeta at the club's first of two meetings in 2009.

By KELLY GLISTA, Kglista@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, July 30, 2013

Bow Tie Cinemas, which has theaters in Hartford, West Hartford and nine other locations in the state, is being sued by the Connecticut Association of the Deaf for failing to provide access for deaf and hard of hearing patrons. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on Tuesday and lists three plaintiffs along with the association. It claims that under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Bow Tie is unlawfully denying equal access to "a routine social experience that hearing people enjoy as a matter of course: going to the movies with their family and friends.

It has the potential for being one of the most difficult challenges of this week's inauguration festivities in Washington. We don't mean scoring a hotel room, dinner reservation or tickets to the Texas Black Tie & Boots Ball (all fairly impossible, by the way). No, we're talking about the bow tie. With so many black-tie events on the inauguration social calendar, the bow tie will be decorating thousands of necks as the essential cravat of this week's required uniform for men. But while the bow tie marches purposefully on Washington, it can leave the infrequent wearer literally tied in knots.

THIS WEEK'S PHOTOGRAPH: Can you identify the two men in this 1954 photograph? And why was the man in the bow tie giving the man in the skinny tie a silver platter? (Hint: Objects collected by the man in the bow tie are on display right now at the Connecticut Historical Society.) Win a Northeast T-shirt if your entry is chosen from the correct entries received by Tuesday. Write to Northeast Flashback, 285 Broad St., Hartford, CT 06115, or e-mail your answer to northeast@courant.com. Be sure to include your daytime phone number and your hometown.

He had planned to wear the red bow tie exactly four years ago Saturday night. Howie Dickenman had pushed Central Connecticut to the 1999 Northeast Conference final at Wagner, and as he reached into the vest pocket of his suit jacket, he was sure he felt the heart of coaching. A victory would have put the Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the school's Division I history. Central students, the athletic department and alumni, so accustomed of being buried in UConn's shadow, were giddy with the possibilities.

There is so much going on in Hartford that the weekend begins on Thursday this week! Bow tie aficionados including WFSB Channel 3 bow tie newbie, Mark Dixon, will get together at the Hartford Club today at 5:30 for the Greater Hartford Bow Tie Swap Club event. Participants are asked to wear their best bowtie, and bring along one to swap. Dixon will be the guest speaker. Earlier in the day, The Connecticut Ballet will launch its 30th anniversary at a luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. at The Hartford Club.

State Rep. Patrick Flaherty may one day take his place beside such politicians as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Paul Simon -- not necessarily as a grand statesman of the Democratic Party, but as a public servant who looks snappy in a bow tie. Flaherty, D-Coventry, traded in his straight cravats for the more distinctive bow ties [not clip-ons, by the way] after marching in a parade as a Coventry town councilman several years ago. "It was my first experience wearing a bow tie other than my high school prom," Flaherty said.

Joints were jumpin' and the champagne was flowing Saturday night at Hartford Hospital's annual "The Black and the Red Ball 2000." Cromwell's Raddison Hotel and Conference Center played host to the ball, which benefits the Total Joint Program of Hartford Hospital's Orthopaedics Center. The hospital was recently selected as one of the 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopaedics in the United States. During the cocktail reception and silent auction, guests bid on gems and jewels, arts packages such as tickets to Hartford Stage Company, golf packages and getaway packages including a night's stay at Hartford's Goodwin Hotel and a week at a condo in Big Sky, Montana, donated by one of the hospital's orthopaedists.

By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to the Courant and The Hartford Courant, December 4, 2012

The season of giving is also the season of neckties for Town Manager John Salomone. Each year, Salomone celebrates the holidays by wearing a different Christmas-themed tie every workday from Thanksgiving to Christmas, with a break for dress-down Fridays. It's a tradition he started about a dozen years ago when he was town manager in Auburn, N.Y. "I had more than a few [Christmas ties] so I thought it was a good way to open up the season," Salomone said. "It's kind of an icebreaker for conversation and spreads good cheer for four or five weeks instead of just one day. " Salomone estimates that he has 25 to 30 Christmas neckties.

This year, you can give dad another tie forFather's Day - and still prove that mom was right when she said you're a genius. Wooden bow ties, made by Middlefield sculptor Marv Beloff, are one-of-a-kind pieces of art and practical accessories as well. The quirky cravats were created when Beloff went searching for his favorite neckwear and found that his wife had tossed out all of his bow ties. He channeled this wardrobe malfunction into his craft and found an unusual solution.

By HILLARY FEDERICO, hfederico@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, February 19, 2012

Police are seeking the public's help in locating two men who assaulted and robbed a Hartford man on New Park Avenue early Sunday morning. The incident happened around 2:10 a.m. The victim told police he was walking north on New Park Avenue when he spotted a white four-door vehicle with tints parked at the Mr. Sparkle Car Wash, 217 New Park Ave. After passing it, the victim said he heard someone approaching him from behind. Two men began punching and kicking the victim.

Going to the movies will cost you less this summer. Bow Tie Cinemas has announced a "Price Rewind. " From June 17 through Sept. 8, all regular ticket and concession prices will be reduced by 10 percent at The Palace 17 and Cinema City on New Park Ave. in Hartford and Criterion Cinemas at Blue Back Square in West Hartford Center. Everyone likes going to the movies, especially during the summer blockbuster season. We've always focused on providing a great value and a top quality experience to our customers, and the Summer Rewind is our way of continuing that tradition this season.

There is so much going on in Hartford that the weekend begins on Thursday this week! Bow tie aficionados including WFSB Channel 3 bow tie newbie, Mark Dixon, will get together at the Hartford Club today at 5:30 for the Greater Hartford Bow Tie Swap Club event. Participants are asked to wear their best bowtie, and bring along one to swap. Dixon will be the guest speaker. Earlier in the day, The Connecticut Ballet will launch its 30th anniversary at a luncheon beginning at 11:30 a.m. at The Hartford Club.

The film trade publication Variety called Tommy Wiseau, the writer- director- star of "The Room," "a narcissist nonpareil whose movie makes Vincent Gallo's 'The Brown Bunny' seem the apotheosis of cinematic self-restraint. " So, aren't you just a little bit curious? The 2003 so-bad-it's-good cult classic is about five people whose lives, loves and character flaws wind around each other, leading all of them to wonder if anyone in the world can be trusted. (Pictured, from left, are Juliette Danielle, Wiseau and Philip Haldiman.

"Have you seen this?!" screamed a teaching colleague. He was brandishing George Will's newspaper column. Was he disgusted by Will's above-it-all attitude? Furious that Will wasn't being aboveboard? Angry that Will's photo had been cut off above his bow tie? None of the above. In fact, my colleague was on a "Which" hunt. He was outraged by Will's use of a sentence fragment beginning with "Which." "Some Clinton supporters," Will had written, "defend him with a masterpiece of political minimalism: `Watergate was worse.

- When Peter Glanz, a filmmaker with Connecticut roots, began to walk up the red carpet for the premiere of Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," he knew he had truly arrived at the Cannes Film Festival. Just one thing: He wasn't wearing a bow tie. Officials wouldn't let him ascend the stairs of the Palais des Festivals without one. So, like the umbrella vendors who magically appear in New York as gray clouds move in, an elderly woman materialized and sold Glanz an old bow tie for 15 euros.

A group of guys over at The Hartford Club were tying one on Tuesday ... literally. It was the 17th gathering of the Bow Tie Swap Club, a motley group of guys sporting silks, satins, paisleys, stripes, polka dots and plaids around their necks, with lots of cravat chat about the pros and cons of neckties verses the more dapper bow tie. "I love my bow ties," said the red-tie tied George DeGeorge, former bilingual education administrator for...

It was bow tie pasta, bow tie-shaped cookies and bow tie neckwear all around for the crowd that gathered at the Hartford Club Tuesday because, well, the Greater Hartford Bow Tie Club is made up of a dapper group of men with a sense of style and allegiance to their neckwear. And wear it they did. Following the fashion of Theodore Roosevelt, Malcolm X, John Houseman in "The Paper Chase," Groucho Marx, Pee-wee Herman and George Burns, they showed their stylish stuff in neck wraps of silk, crepe de chine ties and taffeta at the club's first of two meetings in 2009.